Glasgow royalty Mogwai marked 30 years around the sun with 2 nights at home in the Barrowlands after releasing their 11th album “The Bad Fire” in January.
Supported by Cloth on the 18th and Kathryn Joseph tonight, an unfortunate snafu at the door meant we werent in on time to catch more than the tail end of the support set but judging by Kathryns explicitve filled gratitude “I fucking love you all” it was a show worth seeing.
As per the rest of the rest of the tour they opened with “God Gets You Back” and “Hi Chaos” bringing the tension up, almost 2000 people are frozen in unison, mesmerised by the stoic figures on stage. Some shows live or die by their audience engagement and theatrics, but this is not one of those shows; this crowd is 100% sonic adoration. Next, we roll back the years with “Christmas Steps” and “Take Me Somewhere Nice”. Somehow, a 10-minute instrumental is the song that brings them closest to sounding like a traditional guitar band. We are immediately back into the ether with crowd favourite “Ritchie Sacramento”, a few brave audience members try jumping around at this point, but it doesn’t take off.
“If You Find This World Bad, You Should See Some of the Others” almost feels like a peaceful rest before hitting the crescendo of crescendos, earplugs are very welcome at this point. “Hunted by a Freak” brings out the vocoder. “How to Be a Werewolf” is followed by “Remurdered” and for a brief moment, it feels like Mogwai go somewhere darker and let their inner Tool fans loose for a while. “Fanzine Made of Flesh” brings back the heavily distorted vocals but brings us to a much more euphoric and hopeful place.
The main set ends on “Like Herod” and “Lion Rumpus” merged into one glorious, self-indulgent, ear and mind-blowing celebration. Stewart’s crowd work for the night consists of saying a couple of heartfelt thank yous before the band leaves the stage briefly. They return for the encore, as it commonly is playing “My Father My King” for at least 20 minutes, it’s a roller coaster again, leaning towards a darker side of Mogwai but with moments of hope and every emotion in between.
A band should not be able to start on such good footing, then spend the next 30 years releasing regularly and getting better every time, it defies the logic of how music ages. The Barrowlands will see its fair share of 20-year-old album anniversary tours this year, but tonight, Mogwai picked out pieces all across a 30-year catalogue, and I do not think you would find a single person who was disappointed they didn’t play mostly from “Rock Action”
It is not just their recordings that defy logic, rock shows are supposed to have crowd work, banter, mosh pits and audience participation. I love to listen to Mogwai on long bike rides in the pitch black under the stars, and during a slow buildup, you can wonder whether it would be better to be there than in a room full of 2000 people, silently transfixed to the stage. However, when the “Universe’s loudest band” kicks in, there is no other time or place you want to be; 20-minute songs feel a bit on the short side, and some crowd banter would ruin the mood. It’s perfect and it is going to continue to get even better.
Words and picture: Dale Harvey @daleharvey